Ghost Kitchens
The New Yorker has an article about the future of restaurants, suggesting that restaurant-less kitchens will become more popular, with multiple businesses sharing the space.
Over the past few years, delivery has been on the upswing, and delivery-only kitchens—referred to as “ghost kitchens” or “dark kitchens”—are having a moment. Reef operates kitchens across eighteen cities in the United States, in seventy-odd parking lots.
The meat of the article is this business model of placing pods in unused or underused city spaces, such as parking lots. But the question of restaurants has been on my mind lately. How will we return to restaurants. I know people who are eating at restaurants—usually outside—but we’ve barely done takeaway. We are not ready to eat at an establishment.
The article points out why ghost kitchens may become the way of the future:
Opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant is high-risk and expensive, whereas ghost kitchens are lower-risk, offering a more affordable way for entrepreneurs to enter the business. In most cities, opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant requires a gauntlet of permits and inspections; restaurateurs waiting on permits might find themselves paying months of rent for space they aren’t yet allowed to use.
And yet, part of the joy of eating out isn’t the food itself. I mean, of course, it’s partially about the food. But it’s about the space and decorations and the people at your table and the people around you. Ghost kitchens remove four of the reasons for dining out while only providing a single counterbalance to the loss: It’s safer.
We don’t do delivery at all (pre- or during-COVID-19), though we’ve gone to two restaurants two times each to do takeaway. We’ve started setting aside a day every two weeks to pick up at one of the two restaurants. They are places we associate with takeaway, so the experience feels normal. We haven’t yet ventured to places where we haven’t done takeaway in the past.
We may head in this direction for a few years—ghost kitchens and hiding away in our homes to consume food—but I hope we swing back to brick-and-mortar spaces. To sitting at a table and chatting with the waitstaff. Meeting with friends. Peeking at the other tables to see what others are eating. Encountering the food while it is still hot; straight from the kitchen.
7 comments
I wonder how many brick and mortar spaces will still be left. Probably not many, at least not independent restaurants that aren’t massive chains.
We are trying to get take out from 3-4 places nearby that we love and hope will still be there when this is over. I don’t always actually want to eat the food (especially as take out where it does get cold and needs to be reheated), but I still do it because I want to know I made an effort to support them during this crazy time.
The small business landscape will be desolate or non-existent by the time this is over and restaurants and bars will be among the business most affected.
Although we have done the same as you – we never did delivery and we didn’t start during the pandemic, and we have done carry out from only 3 places where we would have regularly done carry out only anyway – this idea makes me sad. Not because I went to restaurants so often, but because so much of life now feels like hiding in our homes. It’s necessary. We are doing it, still distancing and being as careful as we were back in March, but it is a sad feeling.
I will be sorry to lose some of my favorite local places. We have been getting takeout all the way along in the hope of helping them to stay in business.
In normal times we rarely eat out or get takeout. Early on we got takeout several times to support a local vegan place. Then restaurants were allowed to open for dine in here (despite cases surging) and we haven’t eaten out or gotten takeout since. Now restaurants are closed for dine in again, surprise surprise (not). I’m sad for all the businesses that may go under but opening stuff up and wishing covid away hasn’t worked. The economy would have been better off had the near complete lockdown lasted longer.
It’s sad to watch brick & mortar restaurants shut down permanently. For each one, I think of the people behind it (especially the mom and pops) whose entire dreams were wiped out due to the virus. I mean, can you imagine staking everything on your dream, anticipating everything but THIS?
So, yes, it’sgood that something like ghost kitchens will rise out of the ashes, but I’m still sad about the loss of the restaurant experience and also feel bad for the people who lost their dreams of serving people in a certain way. Maybe they can adapt to this new world in this way.
I’m sad about that. Pre-COVID, we only ever did pizza delivery occasionally on free delivery Tuesdays. but we did takeaway (takeout) more frequently. We’re back to that, except for the pizza, because I discovered I make nicer pizza at home! lol
I can’t imagine not eating out for a few years, as you are having to contemplate. But equally, given the current situation in the US, I could also not contemplate eating out, or even inviting friends to dinner, so I’d be making the same decisions.
I like the idea of Ghost kitchens, but it is still nice to go out and eat somewhere sometimes. Restaurants were only fully closed for a short time here (in Finland), but they were soon allowed to be takeout/takeaway only. Many places started delivering (in the center of town area) and many more started doing takeaway, that hadn’t before. We got takeaway from some of our favorite places, and found a new place or two along the way.
Now, restaurants are open again since June 1st (buffet/serve yourself only just last week), but with restriction of half the amount of people (to keep space between diners). I have only eaten in a restaurant once the last week since March. It felt weird. I think I like getting the food and taking it to work, home, at the park to eat. I don’t think there are any restrictions if you are sitting on a terrace or outside seating, as I saw an outside bar jam packed a few weeks ago. I won’t be going there for sure!
All this said, Finland has only 85 actively known cases of Covid-19 right now, with 1 person in ICU. And there hasn’t been any new cases or deaths in the last few days. It’s much different here…